Through the Karoo and into the Kingdom
Departing Port Elizabeth we had a good 9 hour drive ahead of us through the remote Karoo desert and into Lesotho; 'The Mountain Kingdom.' The journey moved from the industrialised city to smaller towns (eerily like Ballarat) to remote desert villages lined with humble shanty's and strewn with litter. Strangely enough, the dynamic seemed vastly different to the towns along the garden route like Storms River Village. People scarcely smiled and seemed strangely standoff'ish and, having been used to strangers greeting strangers in the street in most outer-city areas, I found it really odd. ..
The moment we crossed into Lesotho the dynamic changed. White-man was clearly more of a rarity, which excited many of the locals and we were warmly welcomed indeed. Whilst South Africa is not the 'real' Africa in many respects, the scenery and culture of Lesotho the moment you cross the border tells you you've found the 'real' Africa again.
We headed to Malealea lodge, a community-conscious venture established 26 years ago, starting with old settlement buildings as much as 100+ years old and situated in the lowlands; framed by mountains. The scenery was so absolutely stunning that none of our photos really do it justice.
The day after we arrived we hired mountain bikes to go explore the area, but in the middle of our trip were trapped in a storm with lightning, thunder and hail that pelted down so badly it HURT. So we huddled under the closest vegetation -- a small bush -- until we puckered up the courage to scoot to a nearby hut with our local guide. The owners of the hut were extremely hospitable. Although communication was limited (they only spoke Sotho) they had a warm manner offering us what food they had (rice with ketchup) and tea. Sotho is quite closely related to Setswana so I at least managed to communicate the basic thanks/compliments to the hosts.
When the storm eased a bit, we headed back to Malealea, only to have the sunshine come out again once we returned the bikes. Trust.
Nonetheless I took the opportunity to explore on foot instead whilst my brothers lazed, taking a local guide to find the nearby Gorge and learn a bit more about the Basotho people. Some fun-facts:
--Much like Botswana, the concept of 'Bride price' still exists; where the grooms family pays the brides family in the form of livestock (often cows).
--Men or Women can be chiefs of a village
--Most Basotho operate on subsistence farming (ie they don't sell produce) whereby they trade different crops amongst each other.
--Come a special occasion (ie the naming of a child) the slaughter of an animal (ie a lamb) is still customary
--Some Basotho men undergo initiations where they must go into the mountains for 6 months (it does get cold and snow in Lesotho) and what they do is a secret that only those that have been part of the initiation are privvy too. On our Mountain Bike ride we did pass the older men, marching and singing on-route to collect those who had completed their initiation. Much more fun than gimicky songs/dances put on for tourists.
Nonetheless I took the opportunity to explore on foot instead whilst my brothers lazed, taking a local guide to find the nearby Gorge and learn a bit more about the Basotho people. Some fun-facts:
--Much like Botswana, the concept of 'Bride price' still exists; where the grooms family pays the brides family in the form of livestock (often cows).
--Men or Women can be chiefs of a village
--Most Basotho operate on subsistence farming (ie they don't sell produce) whereby they trade different crops amongst each other.
--Come a special occasion (ie the naming of a child) the slaughter of an animal (ie a lamb) is still customary
--Some Basotho men undergo initiations where they must go into the mountains for 6 months (it does get cold and snow in Lesotho) and what they do is a secret that only those that have been part of the initiation are privvy too. On our Mountain Bike ride we did pass the older men, marching and singing on-route to collect those who had completed their initiation. Much more fun than gimicky songs/dances put on for tourists.
Following Malealea, we took our fierce 2x2 bubble car rental to the even more remote Semonkgong village; driving the poor little thing to places it wasn't designed to go (but remarkably scratch free!). The scenery was simply stunning again. We left the low-lands as the car climbed dirt-and-gravel roads into the more spectacular high-lands, pausing frequently just to gawk and marvel at our surrounds.
Our destination, Semonkgong lodge, was nestled beautifully in a small gorge with a gurgling stream nearby. Food at the lodge seemed predominantly local and absolutely fresh -- even better I encountered phaphatha once again! (A locally made wholewheat bread, also made in Botswana, that is somewhat reminiscent of English-muffins). I'm not normally a bread person, but that, served warm with melting butter.... *insert drool here*
But the real reason for our long trip to Semonkgong was the nearby Maletsunyane falls -- the highest in Africa and second largest in the world. It more than exceeded expectations. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life.
After trekking there with just Gavin and James from the lodge and through small villages we virtually had the whole place to ourselves and there was no-such-thing as an entrance fee. At Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe) you pay a good USD $30 for the privilege of seeing the falls and whilst there are more waterfalls and the scenery is gorgeous, there was something about the peace, serenity and other-worldliness at Maletsunyane that far surpassed Victoria Falls. The only thing I could really parallel it to would be the infamous 'Avatar' movie. The one other soul we encountered contemplating its magnificence, was an expat photographer who claims to have been visiting the waterfall over 6 years, still in a quest to properly capture the majestic scenery. In fact, he had been a visitor to Lesotho over the last 16 years and claims that he keeps coming back with so much left to explore. Lesotho extends to only 248/181 km at its widest/longest points, but I don't doubt his claim at all.
We hung at the falls for much longer than we originally intended, but eventually dragged ourselves away, lamenting over the end of our brief visit to the country. If Gavin didn't have to get to J'burg for a flight, we would have stayed longer for sure and we're all still pretty keen to return one day. Indeed, on route out of the country when I saw a sign indicating on-going engineering works by Aurecon, I must admit my imagination wandered a little in the realms of 'what I want to be when I grow up….and where...' ..Lesotho?
------------------------
As a matter of mere coincidence, the day and time we dropped Gavin off at the airport, Sachin, a friend we made whilst travelling SA was also at the airport. He had just visited Victoria Falls and was back in SA for <2 weeks and also coincidentally due to fly out from the continent the same day as James and I... So naturally we teamed up for the final leg of our journey; Swaziland and Mozambique.
Swaziland is situated pretty much smack-bang in South Africa, with a touch of its border to Mozambique. It is a monarchy where the king has something like 14 wives (not sure of the current tally, one ran away) and the HIV infection rate is 49% amongst adults (26% across the whole demographic) -- the highest in the world. It was a gorgeously green country with rolling hills, patches of lush vegetation, small boulder-like mountains and landscapes enshrouded by mist. Our time through Swaziland was short (overnighted in Elzuwini) with less than 200km driven through the small country, but our impression was that the place seemed far more developed than Lesotho and also lacked the crowded shanty's of South Africa.
------
The beautiful scenery of our road trip continued as we entered Mozambique, driving toward the coastline. We by-passed crowded Maputo and headed straight for Bilene -- a small lagoon-like beach area. Having been there once before, i was surprised to find it nearly deserted this time around with the whole place virtually to ourselves. After some good beach-bumming we headed to Tofo, one of the few backpacker'esque destinations in the country. Still far from a common 'backpacking route', Tofo seemed to receive the more 'intrepid' travellers and was a great place to meet interesting new people and spend some time with a huge range of activities on offer. Naturally I went scuba diving (anyone say Manta rays and reef sharks?), beach bumming, walking and lazing.
When it finally came time for the long-haul home, it seemed that Africa didn't want to let us go easily. The day we had to drive the car back to SA, torrential rain started; the beginning of forecasted monsoonal rains set to last about a week. Wearing nothing but bathers and a raincoat we hurried about like headless chooks determined to get going before the roads got washed out and our ridiculous bubble car (Chevrolet Spark Lite) washed away with it. Getting past the border into South Africa was a relief to say the least.
As the journey due to a close, each day I thought 'I don't want to go home, I don't want to go home, I don't want to go home….', simply because the last 7.5 months had been so amazing I wanted to hang on to them. Of course, I was also looking forward to my planned trip to Tassy, seeing good friends again, going back to the Australian bush and (dare I say it) real education.
But to all those I met and befriended along the way, thanks for adding to the magnificent experiences we had -- the better and the worse! If you ever need a place to stay in Australia, you know where to go :)
No comments:
Post a Comment